5th of December

When opening up AM 79 4to you're met by rota fortuna, the wheel of fortune. (Click on the picture for a larger version)

AM 79 4to is one of several 16th-century Danish-Norwegian law manuscripts. This manuscript differs from the others in that it contains allegorical drawings. 
When you open the book you are met by the rota fortuna - the wheel of fortune. A human figure has been palced on the wheel as a symbol of four life stages: on top, on the bottom, going up and going down. The drawing is accompanied by the advice of Roman poet Ovid: ”Medio tutissimus ibis” (You will go most safely by the middle course) and ”Medium tenuere beati” Happy are they who have kept a middle course), which is of unknown origin.

At the end of the book there is a rendering of the motif homo bulla, man is a bubble. A bubble-blowing naked boy sits on a skull which rests on a bone. Under the picture is an observation on how life passes away like smoke and bubbles. The drawing is probably modelled on an emblem titled Qvis evadet? (Who evades?) made by the Dutch painter om Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617) around 1594.

We do not know for whom the manuscript was made. The first page contains a coat of arms featuring a bear with a fish tail on a field of red and white. This is, however, not a known coat of arms of any Scandinavian noble family and may have been made up for this manuscript.

You can turn the pages on AM 79 4to on Handrit.org

(Click on the picture for a larger version